The Longest Silence
by StickersAndRainbows
Summary: "I needed to make myself hidden. Get away from the madness. Survive." Shiloh has been chosen for the Hunger Games, and her world seems to be crashing all around her. More then that, allies and enemies make survival an impossible challenge. Chapter 1 up.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins does. I'm purely a fan with a wild imagination and a computer.**

"On your mark…get set…begin!"

The only thing going through my mind was that I needed to sprint. Get to the valuable supplies before the others. I could feel someone flanking my left side, but I tried to put it out of my head, and dove for a backpack. I quickly grabbed it and a knife beside it, and tried to stumble my way out of the mob of teens. A girl with raven hair locked eyes with me as I tried to make my way out. In her hand was a dagger similar to mine. As she ran towards me, weapon raised, it was hard for me to think. However, I instinctively dove and gave her a kick to the back before running off and away from the supplies. The signals went off then, showing that 8 members had already been killed. One of the pictures was the girl who tried to kill me; probably stabbed after I kicked her. I looked back swiftly, and found that a boy twice my height was following me. He had a set of throwing stars. Panic flowed through my veins. My heart and head were pounding. Suddenly a sharp pain was in my leg. One of the stars was in my calf, but I continued to run. Another star dug its way into my shoulder. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying. Behind me, I heard a cry. The boy had fallen into a trap. I continued running for my life, trying to get the stars out of my flesh.

I needed to make myself hidden. Get away from the madness. Survive. I continued to run until my legs couldn't run anymore, and then decided I should check my surroundings. I was in a forest area, surrounded by massive trees at least 50 feet at the base. Off to my left was a cave-like area. Glancing all around to make sure I was alone, I made my way towards the cave.

The cave wasn't that big. There was enough room for me, but only just. I wasn't that big to begin with. Breathing heavily, I swung around my backpack and unzipped it quietly. Inside contained a small amount of dried food, a case of bullets, and another jacket similar to the green one I was in. I sighed, knowing the bullets were a waste since I had no gun. I went to zip the backpack up again when a mud-caked hand covered my mouth, and a knife was at my throat. My eyes went wide, and I knew this was the end. I thought I was going to make it a little more than this.

"What are you doing here?" A male voice whispered in my ear as the knife slipped away from my throat. Turning my head around, I breathed a slight sigh of relief. It was only Luke, the other tribute from my district. His hair, which was normally dirty blonde, looked greasy and covered with dirt. A bloody gash was on his left cheek.

I ignored his question, "You're covered with mud."

"It's called camouflage," he told me, "And I suggest you put some on, too, Shiloh. You didn't even notice me in here." Without my response, he reached in the small space behind him and grabbed a handful of mud and threw it on my lap.

I looked at him questioningly. He seemed to hate me when we were on the train. "Why are you helping me?"

He gave a boyish smile in return. "We're both from District 10. We should stick together, right? Like Allies."

I frowned. Our mentor Emilio told us not to trust anyone – and I assumed that included each other.

As I started rubbing the mud on my face, I decided conversation was better than dreaded silence. "How do you have enough room back there?" From what I remember, Luke was at least a foot taller than me, and I barely had enough room.

"There's a smaller tunnel back there," he pointed behind him, "So I stuck my feet in there. Clever, huh?"

"Until an animal bites your feet off," I responded, covering my arms with the mud. He chuckled.

The signal went off again, showing another tribute had died. I peeked my head out the entrance to see who, but it was a boy I didn't recognize.

After I was completely covered in mud, Lukas spoke again. "We better get moving. It's not a good idea to stay stationary for too long."

"What do you mean 'we'?" I retorted, frowning and getting out of the cave, "I never agreed to be your ally."

"That's a shame," he said, crawling out behind me, "Cause I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you, then."

My guard immediately went up as well as my knife, but Luke only laughed.

"See you around, Shiloh," he said, adjusting the strap to his own backpack, and walking off and away from me. Confused, but glad I was still alive, I walked in the opposite direction. As I continued to walk amongst the trees, I thought back to Luke. Why was he treating the games so casually? Did he even realize he was probably going to die? The thoughts spread through my brain like wildfire.

The entire day I'd been walking. I wasn't stupid; I kept to the shadows and in between trees. Still, it was now sunset, and I'd walked more then I'd like to. I looked around again, seeing if there was anywhere to stop for the night. All I could see was trees. I sighed once more, leaning my head against one of the trees. The bark was rough against my head. I closed my eyes for only a moment, but that's when things usually turn sour. A few seconds after my eyes were closed, a whistling noise flew past my ear. My eyes immediately shot open, and I looked at the tree. There was a dart in it, most likely laced with poison. My head snapped forward and my hand went to my dagger. Two red-haired girls were in front of me, weapons at the ready. Before I had time to even think about thinking, they charged at me.

My first instinct was to run, but I held off. One of the girls tried to swing an ax at me, but I dodged. To my advantage, she hit the other girl in the stomach, who fell to the ground. A look of horror hit her face, but it was soon replaced by a look of anger and revenge. She plunged forward at me. Stumbling back to get out of the way, I tripped on a root and fell, which is a dire mistake in the Hunger Games. She loomed over me with a wicked smile on her face. As she raised her dagger, I knew it was the end. Instead of bringing the dagger down on me, though, her face was confused and blood started to pour out of her mouth and stomach. She dropped to her knees, revealing a familiar face with a gun.

"Long time no see," Luke grinned, putting the gun away.

I looked at him in disbelief. "You just saved my life."

"Yeah, well, you're welcome," he met my gaze. The sirens went off, showing the death of the two girls.

"Think you can trust me now? Ally?" he asked, his eyes smiling. He held out is hand for me. "We might be able to live a little longer together."

I thought for a brief second. He _did_ save my life, after all. Going against my better judgment, I took his hand in mine and he pulled me up from the ground. "Allies."

"Good," he grinned, "Now we should probably find a place to make camp for the night. I don't trust these woods. I found a place about a quarter mile rest that looks like it could be a good camp site."

I nodded, barely listening to him. My thoughts were on the previous events. And the fact that he was still holding my hand.

"Let's go, then," he smiled at me once more, before pulling me along. I looked down at our hands intertwined, and wondered what I got myself into.

The place Luke found was bigger than the cave we were in earlier. There was room for a fire pit and for us both to lie down. We crawled inside, and I leaned against the wall of the cave. Although I was cold, I didn't complain.

"We need firewood," Luke told me, looking through his own backpack.

"I'll get it," I said, getting up and grabbing my dagger.

"No, I got it. You don't know what's out there," he insisted.

"And neither do you. I'll be fine, Lukas."

He frowned, looking at me. "Okay," he said after a while, "But be careful."

"I'm not a child," I smiled, "I'll be fine." And with that, I left.

Finding firewood was a lot harder than it sounded for being in a forest and all. All the trees were almost 100 feet tall, and their branches (which were wider than I am long) were too far up for me to reach. So instead of actually finding sticks, I decided it would be better to just shave wood off the side of a tree. I got out my dagger and began shaving.

Why was Luke so worried about me? It's not like I'm a young child; I'm almost sixteen. Thinking back on it, though, I remembered that he always was very kind and careful around girls.

Back in District 10, we went to the same school. The first memory I had of Luke was at the playground during our second year at school. One of my friends, Anastasia, was playing with a boy named Rory. They were fine until Warren, who was known for bullying, came up to them.

"Rory, come play with us," Warren said.

"I'm playing with Ana," he insisted.

"Ana's a loser, Rory," he said, right in front of her. Anastasia's face became harder, but sad. "Why would you want to play with a loser? Unless…unless you're a loser, too." Rory looked at Anastasia apologetically, and walked over with Warren. Although it was a petty insult, it looked like it really hurt Ana. And that's when Lukas came over. His hair was lighter back then, but his grin was still the same.

"Hey, Anastasia!" he smiled, holding a bright red ball between his chubby hands, "Come play with me!"

"Why would I play with you?" she sniffled, wiping at her eyes, "I'm a loser. Didn't you hear what Warren said?"

Lukas crouched down besides Anastasia, who was perched on the ground, "I don't think you're a loser. You know what I think? I think Warren's a loser."

This made Anastasia smile. Lukas chuckled. "What do you say? Let's go." She looked up at him and smiled, getting up and walking over with him.

"And that's how we'll win."

A voice made me snap out of my thoughts. I became as still as I could manage, breathing softly and slowly. I held the wood so tightly I could feel blood start to bead around the edges.

"What if the District 4 kids won't join us?" A female voice spoke softly.

A third voice piped in. "Oh, they'll do anything to get farther. They're careers, after all."

I walked around to the edge of the tree as quietly as I could. Looking around the edge, I saw three teens sitting around a fire – two boys and one girl. By how well-fed they looked, they had to be careers. My thoughts were confirmed when one of the boys said: "Besides, there's only five of us careers left. We need to stick together to get rid of the others before we start picking each other off."

I didn't need to hear anymore, or become discovered, for that matter. I couldn't take them all on by myself, so attacking them was out of the question. As silently as I could, I backed up with the wood I had, and made my way back to Luke.

"So…you're saying that the careers are banding together?"

The fire had been started, and it was starting to get really cold out. Luke and I were sitting around the fire, trying to keep warm.

"Yeah, at least, I think so," I responded, holding my hands in front of the dancing flames, "They were talking about getting District 4 to join them, and killing everyone else off."

He didn't say anything, but looked at the fire with a troubled expression.

I watched the flames as well, feeling my body temperature drop by the minute. I let my hair down, hoping that if my neck was completely covered, I would stay warmer. It wasn't helping.

Suddenly I felt Luke's' arm around my shoulder. I looked up at him instinctively, before blushing and turning away. His arm was warm.

"You looked cold," he told me, smiling crookedly, "And I'm afraid I didn't snag any blankets when I grabbed my backpack."

"It's r-really okay," I told him.

"No, it's not. If you get hypothermia and die, I won't have anyone covering my back in battle."

I rolled my eyes, leaning into Luke a little. He _was_ warm. My thoughts slowly started to disappear, and I could feel myself falling into a warm, comfortable sleep.

**Thanks for reading! Day 2 will be up shortly. Any and all constructive criticism is welcomed. I'd love to hear what you have to say – more comments = more improvements.**


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